Faery Worlds - Six Complete Novels (67 page)

Chapter Eleven

By Monday morning, he was a nervous wreck. As soon as his parents left, he was in his room, trying on different shirts, checking his hair.

“Whatcha doing?” Katie wandered in and plopped on his bed. She was holding an orange plush Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“Nothing, Katie.”

“Want to play dinosaurs?”

“I'm busy.”

“You said you weren't doing anything!”

“I'm having a friend come over for a while.”

“Mom and Dad say you're not allowed,” Katie said. “I'm s'posed to call them if you go anywhere. Or if somebody comes over.”

“They've got you spying for them, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Please don't tell, Katie.”

“Who's coming over?”

“My friend, Erin.”

“Boy Aaron or girl Erin?”

“Girl Erin.”

“Oooh...Is she your girlfriend?”

“No, Katie. And she's probably not even coming.”

“You said she was! Make up your mind.”

“I mean, she probably forgot, or changed her mind,” Jason said. It was hard for him to believe that Erin Kavanagh was actually coming to hang out with him. He'd never spent any time with her besides band practice and failed auditions.

“Why would she forget?” Katie asked.

“Because she doesn't care that much about me. She has a boyfriend.”

“Is he coming, too?”

“He better not be!” Jason was suddenly worried at the idea that Erin would bring Zach and he'd be stuck watching the two of them together the whole time.

Jason took out his cologne, which he'd never taken out of the box since his aunt sent it to him for Christmas. It smelled a little bit like leather and wood, nothing too froofy. He slapped it all over his face with both hands, since he'd once seen a character in a movie apply it that way.

“Why you wearing perfume?” Katie asked.

“It's called 'cologne' when a boy wears it.”

“Why you wearing boy perfume?”

“I'm just trying it out.”

“Are you in love with Erin?”

“Katie, just give me a break!” Jason shouted. “Stop being a little pest!”

Katie's face crumpled and turned red, and she looked like she was about to cry.

“Play stupid dinosaurs by yourself!” she shouted back. She threw the stuffed T. Rex on his floor and stomped out of the room.

“Katie, sorry, I didn't mean to yell,” Jason said, remembering that he needed Katie to keep quiet and not tell their parents about Erin visiting. He followed Katie to her room. After much begging and apologizing, he agreed to make up for yelling by playing Mario Kart on the Wii with her.

The video game actually calmed him down by giving him something to concentrate on, besides the question of whether Erin was actually coming, and the question of whether he'd be able to talk like a somewhat intelligent human being when she was around.

Jason was completely absorbed in being Yoshi, driving his go-kart on the beach, when the doorbell rang.

“I'll get it!” Katie dropped her steering-wheel controller, letting Toad crash into a rocky cliff. She ran out of the living room.

“Wait, Katie!” Jason chased after her. She was already opening the front door.

Erin stood outside the storm door. She waved when she saw Jason, and his heart skipped a beat or three.

Katie pushed open the storm door.

“Are you Erin?” Katie asked.

“I am. Who are you?” Erin smiled.

“That's Katie, my sister.” Jason reached over Katie's head and held the door open while Erin stepped inside. Erin hugged an arm around his waist.

“Are you in love with my brother?” Katie asked.

“Katie, don't you want to go play video games? Or watch TV?” Jason asked.

“No, I want to see what you guys are doing,” Katie said.

“Katie, we need to talk alone for a minute,” Jason said.

“Then I'll tell Mom you had a
girl
come over!”

Jason sighed. Katie really had him trapped on that one.

“Okay, Katie,” Jason said. “But you can't tell Mom and Dad what I'm about to show you.”

“Is it a secret?” Katie whispered, with her hands over her mouth.

“Yep, it's a big secret.”

“I like secrets,” Erin said. She winked, and Jason thought he might melt.

“It's out in the garage.” Jason led them down the steps to the living room, and from there into the garage.

“Are we going to play?” Erin took out her harmonica.

“Maybe.” Jason knelt by his dad's old Corvette and slid out a cardboard box covered with a drop cloth. He'd moved the instruments into it when they shrank to toy size.

Now he removed the drop cloth. Erin and Katie leaned forward to look at the little instruments, all of them carved with fairy runes: the lute with the amethysts in the soundboard, the reed pipes, the silver harp, the drum.

“Oooh, pretty!” Katie said.

“What are these for?” Erin asked.

Jason took a deep breath. “Okay. So the other night, this...goblin sneaks into my house.”

“Goblin?” Erin raised an eyebrow.

“It's true!” Katie said. “He was a ugly green monster!”

“Oh...a
goblin
,” Erin said, as if this were just a game for Katie's benefit, and she was playing along. “I bet that
was
scary.”

“But Jason runned him off!” Katie added.

“Yeah...” Jason actually felt a little relieved Katie was here to back up his story. “So I chased the goblin over to Mrs. Dullahan's house. You know Mrs. Dullahan?”

“I know of her,” Erin said. “With the creepy house on the edge of town?”

“She's a witch!” Katie said.

“So, I chase the goblin there, and then...I follow him into the fairy world.”

“I like fairies!” Katie contributed.

“And I found these instruments,” Jason said. “They're magic.”

Erin looked from Jason to Katie, as if trying to figure out the joke.

Jason picked up the lute. “The problem is, they shrank when I brought them back. Just like the goblin—he was smaller when he was here, but he was taller in the fairy world. Still pretty short, though. Everyone over there was short, except for the ogres.”

“Of course…the ogres.” Erin looked puzzled. And a little worried. She crossed her arms tight and leaned back, away from him.

“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy,” Jason said. “But these things make amazing music. Just listen to this, okay?”

Erin stared at him, frowning.

“This isn’t really funny, Jason,” she said.

“You’ll see what I mean. Trust me.” Jason touched his guitar pick to one string of the lute, took a deep breath, then plucked it and let it hum. A deep, melancholy sound filled the garage, and he suddenly felt very sad.

He plucked the next string, a higher note, and now he felt wistful, nostalgic, thinking of the time his team had won the county Little League championship. And his fifth birthday party. And his Grandmother baking sugar cookies on Christmas Eve.

Erin frowned and looked away. “That's really powerful,” she said, and she sounded a little sad, too.

He plucked the next string, and as it vibrated its slightly higher tone, he felt lonely.

“I wish we had a dog,” Katie said. “I would hug him all the time.”

The fourth string cheered everybody up. He was glad to be here, with Erin and even his pesky little sister. The girls smiled a little.

The fifth string made everyone laugh and brought fresh, happy energy into the room. The sixth put a huge, blissful smile on everyone's face.

“I like that one best,” Katie said.

“It's like each one makes you feel something different,” Erin said. “Three kinds of sadness, three kinds of happiness.”

“And when you play them all together...” Jason strummed the pick across all six strings.

Erin closed her eyes as the music passed through her. “Oh...
wow
. That's really beautiful.”

“Play it some more, Jason!” Katie demanded. “I want more!”

“That's what we like to hear from the audience,” Erin said. She smiled at Jason.

“Want to try a whole song?” Jason asked.

“Sure.” Erin took out her harmonica.

“You should try this.” Jason handed her the matchbook-sized set of reed pipes. “You play it like a harmonica.”

“Pan pipes,” Erin said. “That's neat. But they're too small to play.” Erin held them to her lips. “I'd just blow all the pipes at once.” She set it aside and put her harmonica to her lips. “I'll stick with old reliable Monica here.”

“What should we play?” Jason set the small lute face-up on his lap.

“I'd really like to hear how 'Remember' sounds on that lute,” Erin said. “Think you can handle it?”

“I think so.” Jason began playing Erin's song 'Remember' on the lute strings. He used the same hand positions and strings he would have used if he were playing his guitar. The music came out deep, rich and heartbreaking. The lute grew warm in his hands.

Erin followed along with her harmonica for a few bars, then she sang:

Remember the day when you were young,

Remember the time when you believed,

Remember the world where you were loved,

Remember the years when you felt free...

The guitar squirmed like a live animal in Jason's hands. The bent neck straightened out, and the whole lute swelled larger.

“Whoa, what's happening?” Jason asked. “Are you seeing this?”

“That’s not possible, is it?” Erin poked at the lute. “It looks like it’s
alive
or something.”

“It’s magic!” Katie said.

“Let's keep playing,” Erin said. “I want to see what happens.”

They played all the way through ‘Remember,’ while the lute grew and shifted in his hands. The enchanted instrument brought an incredible power to the song, and all three of them were in tears by the time Erin sang the last verse:

Remember the promise you never kept,

Nothing you said was ever true.

I know you’ve forgotten all about me,

But I’ll never forget about you.

Jason couldn’t stop crying. It felt like the song had ripped him open. Katie was blubbering loudly, while Erin held her hands over her face and shuddered.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Jason whispered. He patted Katie’s head with one hand. “Erin? That was really good. You write amazing songs.”

Erin kept sobbing into her hands.

“Are you okay?” Jason asked.

Erin slowly lowered her hands, revealing a face that was red and streaked with tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cry.”

“Everybody is,” Jason said.

“You know why I was such a spaz about that necklace?” Erin asked. “That was the last birthday present my dad gave me. When I was nine. He left like a month later. Now it’s a five-dollar bill in my birthday card, if he remembers at all. And he usually doesn’t.”

“I’m sorry.” Jason took her hand. “Is that what the song is about? Your parents’ divorce?”

“It’s stupid.” Erin pulled her hand away from him and pushed blond and green hair back from her face. “Stupid song.”

“It’s not,” Jason said.

“Can you play something happy now?” Katie asked.

Erin laughed and wiped her eyes. “That’s a good idea, Katie. Let’s play my happiest song.”

“‘Stolen Rhino’?” Jason asked.

Erin smiled and blew a few jazzy, upbeat sounds on her harmonica.

“Wait,” Jason said. He picked up the little pan pipes and held them out to her. “Play this.”

“It’s too little.”

“It might not stay that way.” Jason thumped the instrument in his lap, and Erin gaped.

The lute had transformed into a guitar. Not only was it full-sized, but it fit perfectly in Jason’s arms, as if it had been custom-built for him. The fairy runes were carved all over the guitar, giving it a strange, engraved texture under his fingers. The little amethysts were still embedded here and there in the soundboard, but they hadn’t changed size at all, so they looked tiny.

“That’s amazing,” Erin said. She took the little pan pipes from his hand and studied them. “Where did you get these instruments, again?”

“It’s just what I said,” Jason told her. “There’s a door to the fairy world in Mrs. Dullahan’s yard. That’s where I found them.”

“I want to go to the fairy world!” Katie said.

“It’s very dangerous over there,” Jason said. “And crazy. I’m not going back.”

“But I want to,” she complained.

“You really don't,” Jason said. Now he felt like an idiot for talking about fairies in front of his little sister—of course she'd be interested. “They aren't nice fairies like in stories. They carry big swords and they walk around threatening everyone. They're nasty, scary fairies. You have to stay away, Katie.”

“Scary fairies?” Katie pouted. Her eyes were still puffy from crying.

“Scary fairies,” Jason repeated, nodding.

Erin held the tiny pipes to her lips and blew. The sound was haunting, and a cool breeze seemed to pass through the garage, though the doors to the outside were closed.

The pipes swelled in her hands as if she were blowing up a row of balloons. Then the instrument was large enough for her to play each pipe individually. As with the lute-turned-guitar, each pipe gave a different sound and inspired a different, overpowering emotion. As Erin blew on the pipes, Jason felt like his brain was working faster, generating lots of ideas. He was getting excited.

“Are you ready to play yet?” Katie asked.

“I’m ready,” Erin said, giving Jason a smile. She blew some bright notes through the more cheerful-toned pipes. “I’m not too sure how to play this thing.”

“Just treat it like it’s your harmonica,” Jason said. “I think it adapts to you.”

“Cool!” Erin played more notes, and the pan pipes wiggled to fit better into her fingers. Erin laughed. “It tickles.”

Jason began playing “Stolen Rhino” on his guitar. It was a fast, peppy, simple song.

Erin accompanied him on the pipes. The guitar vibrated in his hands, tuning into the pipe sound and harmonizing with it. Hot wind tousled his hair, but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from.